1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to electric fences intended to protect any place from the intrusion or exit of an animal or person, such fences being found around enclosures with a view to preventing livestock from getting out.
The dissuasive effect of these fences is due to the transmission of high-voltage pulses of sufficiently high power in the conducting wires forming the fence.
Accordingly, it is of course crucial for users of these fences to be informed of any malfunctioning of the latter.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Devices have already been proposed enabling the status of the fence to be viewed and/or an alarm to be triggered in the event of the fence malfunctioning.
European patent No. 0,374,055 thus displays a status representing the degree of insulation of the fence based on an analysis of the pulses sent through said fence. This analysis is conducted by a circuit powered by the secondary winding of the transformer generating the high-voltage and high-powered pulses.
European patent No. 0,381,585 proposes the monitoring of the presence or absence of a return signal generated by a transponder situated at the end of the fence. The status of the fence is deduced by analysis of the time interval between transmission of the pulse and reception of the return signal. An overrunning of this time interval enables deterioration of the fence to be detected.
Each of these devices only enables one single characteristic representing the status of the fence to be examined and made available to the user.
Known devices are currently all quite voluminous, which makes them difficult to install, and in addition their power consumption is high.